How To Clean And Organize The Fridge + FREE Printable Fridge Labels

Learn how to clean your fridge out properly with some cleaning hacks and tricks I’ll be sharing with you today. I’ve teamed up with The Container Store to show you how to step your organization game up and organize your food and beverages in both your fridge AND your freezer!

Can I confess something here? I’m kind of a neat freak. My busy life doesn’t always give me the time to indulge my OCD side, but I find time here and there. Since having two kids, the messes have multiplied, and I now have two pairs of adorable little hands making messes and memories.

One of those memories involves getting into our fridge and shaking out two full bags of shredded cheese.

Yep. Shredded cheese everywhere.

But, that’s #momlife. Our recent cheese confetti situation had me thinking about the last time I actually cleaned our fridge. I think it’s been a few months if we’re being completely honest.

As I laughed and mopped up the shredded cheese, I took a hard look at our shelves, drawers, and foods within our fridge. It looked really cluttered, and there were a few spots that needed to be cleaned up that I had been overlooking.

If your fridge is anything like mine, you’re probably looking for the best way to clean it. I have some great cleaning hacks that are specifically for your fridge!

*This post is sponsored by The Container Store and contains affiliate links, however, all opinions are my own.

How To Clean And Organize Your Fridge

Here are a few shots of our fridge before I cleaned it…

I can already see that I have yogurt in two different spots in my fridge. My children’s applesauce pouches are wrapped in a paper towel for reasons unknown. And I’m not utilizing the space I have very well at all!

Drawing Out My Organization Plans

So, in true #slayathomemother fashion, I decided to do something about it, and refresh this space. I sat down with a couple of pieces of paper and a pen and drew an outline of my fridge and freezer. I’m very visual, so it helps to doodle whatever I’m thinking. I actually used to study my notes in college by rewriting them!

Because we normally just kept everything laying on the shelves, I thought we should introduce some bins or containers to help keep things contained. I wanted to grab things that we could use and wash if there was ever a mess.

I got out my tape measure and measured each shelf and drawer – taking note of each of their height, depth, and width. This let me know how much space I had, and what kinds of bins and containers I could implement into my organization plan.

Next, I wrote down everything I had in our fridge. It was pretty empty at the time, so I thought about what we normally have in our fridge that takes up space as well.

Taking Inventory In Our Fridge – What’s In My Fridge

Here’s what we usually have in our fridge…

DRINKS

Milk

Protein shakes (for my skinny little guys!)

Apple juice

Orange juice

Water bottles

VEGETABLES

Bell peppers

Spinach

Broccoli

Green onions

FRUITS

Blueberries

Apples

Oranges

Clementines

Strawberries

DELI MEATS & CHEESES

Turkey meat

Colby jack cheese squares

Shredded cheese

Cheese sticks

SNACKS

Yogurt cups

Applesauce pouches

Grapes (divided into bags)

Taking Inventory Of Our Freezer – What’s In My Freezer

MEATS

Chicken legs

Chicken tenderloins

Meatballs

Ground beef

VEGETABLES

Mixed vegetables

Carrots

Corn

Broccoli

BREAKFAST FOODS

SNACKS

Popsicles

Now that I have taken inventory of everything that is in our fridge and freezer, and I have the proper measurements of the interior spaces, I can figure out a game plan to store our food in a clean and organized way!

Configuring Our Fridge And Freezer To Optimize Space

Keep Your Fridge Style In Mind

When trying to figure out how to best organize your fridge, keep in mind the type of fridge you have. Here are some common types to help you narrow yours down:

Side-by-side: the fridge and freezer are next to each other

French door: two fridge doors side by side with the freezer on the bottom

Top freezer refrigerator: the freezer is on the top

Bottom freezer refrigerator: the freezer is on the bottom

Why is this important, you may ask. To make the most out of what you have, you need to keep in mind how much available space you have, as well as the measurements your unit offers.

We have a french door style fridge, meaning two doors open side by side for the fridge while the freezer is in a large pull-out drawer at the bottom.

Sometimes, you have to look outside the box to figure out the best solution. Looking at the way we had our food stored in our French door refrigerator, I discovered I was wasting a lot of space. Specifically, I wasn’t using the entire depth of our shelves. And if I was, that food that was stored towards the back of the fridge was forgotten about and most likely expired.

Measure Your Fridge

Get out your handy tape measure and take note of the height, width, and depth of each shelf and drawer. Jot these measurements down.

Also – count the number of shelves you have in your fridge. Do you have 2, 3, 4, or even 5 shelves? If you seem to only have 2 inches between one shelf and another, you might be better off removing a shelf!

Research Storage Options

For our fridge, I turned to The Container Store to solve my storage problems! I know they have just about every container known to man, in varying heights, widths, and depths.

Because I’m a big planner, I first went online to see what kind of fridge options they had that would work for our fridge and freezer. I’ve been inside the store before, but I usually find my way to the closet organization section (which explains why my fridge and freezer are disorganized ;)).

They have SO many options for fridge organization – my heart was giddy with excitement as I stared at all of the possibilities! I seriously had butterflies in my stomach.

Maximizing Our Food Storage Space With Containers

I had three goals in mind with refreshing our fridge and freezer spaces:

Maximize our space

Organize our food to reduce clutter

Eliminate the forgotten foods at the back of the fridge

Maximizing Our Fridge And Freezer Space

I found that to truly maximize the space we had available in both our fridge and our freezer, I needed to move things around a bit. While modern fridges are built to store certain objects in certain places, these often aren’t optimal for maximizing the space your fridge offers.

I promise I’m done saying ‘maximize’.

For instance, our fridge manufacturer decided to place the egg holder at the top of our right fridge door. However, I’ve never liked them there, and prefer to store my butter there instead.

Organizing Our Food And Reducing Clutter

To play on the last point of maximizing the available space in our fridge and freezer and moving things around, I wanted to figure out the best way to sort and organize our food so it works for our family!

Eliminate The Forgotten Foods At The Back Of The Fridge

Because this is a major problem I have with the way I currently store our refrigerated food, I looked into storage bins that would take up more space longways in my fridge, like these bins:

How To Clean Your Fridge

Throw Out Expired Foods

Grab a trash can, and start by emptying our your fridge. Take out all of your food and beverages, check their expiration date, and throw expired items in the garbage.

Remove And Wash Shelves And Drawers

Once you’ve removed everything from your fridge, go ahead and remove the shelves and drawers. Also removed the shelves from the doors.

*You may need to wait until your glass shelves reach room temperature before cleaning them with hot water, or else they may break!

Clean with warm soapy water, rinse with cool water, and dry. For tougher spots, you can let the shelves or drawers soak in hotter water.

Clean The Fridge With Baking Soda Mixture

Once the fridge is completely clear of food, examine the interior of your fridge for any sticky messes.

Any stuck on food or spills that had leaked out can be scrubbed off using a baking soda mixture.

I can’t remember where I read this, but I still use these portions of baking soda to hot water to clean out fridge shelving and drawers:

2 tbsp baking soda

1-quart hot water

You’ll want a thinner paste to work with because the temperature of the fridge will harden your paste as you’re scrubbing with it!

For harder-to-clean spots, I may even let the baking soda mixture sit for a few minutes before scrubbing.

Wash And Fill Containers

Remove stickers from containers, and wash all containers with warm soapy water. Rinse with cool water and dry. Fill our containers with whichever food items you have planned.

Wiping Down The Fridge Interior With All-Purpose Cleaner

Start with the very top and work my way down. Wipe down the walls (both the sides walls and the back wall), the ceiling, the floor, the doors, and the door seal around the doors. Everyday gunk and debris find their way in the door seal. An old toothbrush can help get these seals nice and clean!

I try to wipe our seals down every month or so.

Once the shelves and drawers have finished soaking (if they need to), scrub any leftover yuck from them, dry them off and spray some cleaner on them as well, wiping them down with a clean paper towel.

*You can use All-Purpose Cleaner instead if you wish, I find that glass cleaner works well for my fridge.

Finish cleaning the interior of your fridge by wiping it down with a clean cloth to remove any leftover residue.

Wipe Down Bottles And Containers

Before placing your bottles, jars, containers, and remaining food back into your fridge, be sure to wipe down the bottom of each. Any hard sticky gunk will have loosened and become wet in the room temperature air while you’ve been cleaning the interior of your fridge, shelves, and drawers, and will now stick to your newly cleaned shelves!

You can even rinse the bottom of your jars and bottles under running hot water and towel dry before placing them back into the fridge.

Also, make sure none of your bottles are leaking! If they are, you’ll need to either place them into a new bottle or toss them.

Use Fridge Liners For Shelves And Drawers

If you have kids that will be going in and out of your fridge, I highly recommend using some washable fridge liners!

Before placing produce back into their drawers, line the bottom with a fridge liner (like these from The Container Store) or some loose paper towels. This will help keep the bottom of your drawers clean, and be cut to fit the measurements you need!

Think about onions, and how they shed their outer layer of skin – those layers can be easily picked up and thrown out when it’s time to replace them with fresh produce after your next grocery shopping trip.

You can also use fridge liners for your shelves.

I bought 2 3-packs of fridge liners from The Container Store, which was perfect for our fridge. I laid one of them on each of our shelves, as well as the main part of the fridge where I store our milk and drinks, and one in each of our produce drawers.

Wipe Down The Front, Sides, & Top Of Your Fridge

Now that the inside of your fridge is completely clean, focus on the outside of your fridge! Take down all the magnets, your children’s artwork, and Save-The-Date’s.

Our apple juice and orange juice are sitting pretty in two Giara glass water bottles (which are dishwasher safe, and super easy for my 9-year-old to open. The rubber gasket on out glass bottles helps keep our juice fresh. I have them stored behind our milk to maximize our space and ensure that I am the one that can access them. I like to water my children’s juice down before giving it to them – it’s better for their teeth.

And finally, our water bottles are now organized with the Linus water bottle holder (which can hold up to 9 water bottles). We usually store between 5-9 water bottles in our fridge, so this was perfect for us.

Cleaning Out And Organizing The Freezer

Throwing Out Trash And Expired Foods

Using the same process as my fridge, I completely removed everything from our freezer.

Wiping Out The Interior

To wipe out your freezer, mix together 2 pumps of dish soap with 1 quart of piping hot water.

I use either a rag or a microfiber cloth to wipe out the inside, carefully going around the basket drawers.

If you are able to remove the shelves and baskets from your freezer, do so and wash them with warm soapy water in the sink once they’ve reached close to room temperature.

Labeling Food With Freezer Labels

Using freezer labels, I labeled our meat so I can use a FIFO (first in first out) approach. The idea is that the food you place in your freezer FIRST should be what you first defrost and use. We technically already use this principle, but this way I can be sure (especially if the kids or my husband happen to go in and move things around).

Organizing Our Freezer With Baskets

I actually already had baskets in our freezer that I used to store our meat in – but they were a hard metal, and the meat would often freeze and stick to the metal. Not ideal!

*Remember that if you lose power, you’ll need to try to keep the doors closed to your fridge and freezer!

How Long Can I Keep Meat In The Freezer?

If you’re wondering how long you can keep meat in your freezer, here are some guidelines according to FoodSafety.gov:

Fresh poultry: 9-12 months

Fresh Beef, Veal, Lamb & Pork: 4-12 months

Ground meats: 3-4 months

Chicken nuggets: 1-3 months

Cooked leftovers: 2-6 months

Pizza: 1-2 months

Freezer labels can help you keep track of your dates – just write the date the food was purchased on your label, attach to the container or freezer bag you’re using, and place the labeled bag in your freezer! Try to use a FIFO method to storing your meats so you don’t have to constantly check labels each time you go in to pull out your ingredients.

What Is The Best Way To Organize A Fridge?

I think there are a million different ways to answer this question, because we all have different foods in our fridge, and we all have different needs and uses for them as well.

Honestly, the best way to organize YOUR fridge is the way that works for you and your family!

Maybe my milk dispenser idea won’t work in your fridge, and maybe you’d prefer to store your apples and oranges in your produce drawer instead of in baskets like I did. Like I mentioned before, look outside the box, explore new storage solutions, and take advantage of The Container Store’s Kitchen Sale!

Where’s The Vlog For This Post?

Right here!

PIN THIS FOR LATER!

I hope this post has helped you clean your fridge! My little baking soda trick usually works wonders, but I’d love to hear your thoughts! Let me know what you do to clean your fridge in the comments below!

Reader Interactions

Comments

thank you! small fridge or large fridge, you can figure out a system that works for you! I measured out all of my shelves, drawers, and took note of the height, depth, and width of EVERYTHING to figure out what would work for our fridge. You can do the same! It might not look identical to mine unless you have the same fridge model as I do, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create something clean and organized with what you have 🙂

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